Amnesty International, Purveyor of Fine Slander

Yaacov Lozowick
Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
13 May '10

Amnesty International, alongside Human Rights Watch the top so-called human rights organization in the world, yesterday published a piece of blatant slander of the State of Israel. The document is online here, but I'll cite it in its entirety, from the title down.

Israel must stop harassment of human rights defender

Black and white, cut and dried, no nuance or ambiguity. Israel must desist from the harassment it's engaging in.

Amnesty International has called on the Israeli authorities to end their harassment of a human rights activist whose week-long detention by the Israeli authorities was extended today.

Ditto. Israel is doing it, and must desist.

Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was arrested in a dawn raid at his home in Haifa, northern Israel, by the Israeli security services and police on 6 May. He has been charged with "contact with a foreign agent" on the basis of “secret evidence”.

The form the harassment is taking is in the parenthesis. Their content doesn't express truth, or even potential truth, merely a form of mockery of a judicial process.

"Ameer Makhoul is a key human rights defender, well-known for his civil society activism on behalf of the Palestinian citizens of Israel," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme. "His arrest and continued detention smacks of pure harassment, designed to hinder his human rights work. If this is the case, we would regard him as a prisoner of conscience call for his immediate and unconditional release.”

We know him. He's of our club, a human rights defender. People like us are expected to be harassed, and secret evidence about espionage is standard harassment. Do note, however, that Mr Luther (what a delicious name for a potential antisemite) is less certain of himself than the anonymous writer of the communique. True, the detention smacks of pure harassment, a form which is worse than impure harassment, and we'll regard him as a prisoner of conscience - but only if we're certain the allegations are true. Mr Luther isn't totally sure, he's hedging his bets, obfuscating. He's convinced enough to broadcast censure of Israel, but not enough to stand behind the allegation.

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